Another dish-washing question

[vilakins]

I should have added this to the last post, sorry, but I thought of it a bit late.

This is for people from the UK. Why do you wash dishes in a plastic bowl in the sink rather than directly in the sink? Is it to save water, to keep the sink clean, to be able to toss debris over the side, to protect dishes from hard metal, or for some other reason?

Just so people know my dish-washing habits, I rinse dishes to get loose food off and put them in the dishwasher. I wash delicate glassware (only used for dinner parties or special occasions) in the sink with a microfibre cloth, and pots and pans with a brush which goes through the dishwasher when it needs it. I dry any hand-washed dishes with a tea towel, and no, I don't know why it's called that. "Dish towel", as cited by an American, makes more sense.

The only reason I'm asking about dish washing is because of seeing so many knitted dish cloths on a knitting site and community. It's not normally a subject that exerts any fascination. :-P

Comments

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

*Nods* Aha, linen, thanks, I thought that this word is used only for bedding:-)
Water in the UK must be horribly expensive, according what I heard, and O was always asked there to be economical with it . We are lucky in our village becuse we have our own communal well, we pay a very reasonable sum. Water is generally more expensive in other places, especially in towns.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Linen is used for bedclothes (which are rarely made of it) and for the material itself, I have linen tea towels, shirts, and trousers. :-)

We don't pay that much for water as we have so much of it. Rain, rain, rain in winter.